1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for realizing a coordinative environment enabling plural users to effect a coordinative work, particularly a coordinative work suitable for video conference, through plural computers, and a method and a medium suitable for such system.
In particular it relates to a coordinative work environment realizing system, capable of providing various coordinative work environments matching various forms of the coordinative work.
2. Related Background Art
There are being recently proposed and utilized groupware systems for supporting a coordinative work by plural users, by combining plural personal computers or work stations, thereby enabling data exchange or common utilization of data therebetween.
In such groupware system, for enabling the computers to execute the coordinative work such as a conference, a presentation or a lecture meeting, that has been executed without relying on the computers, there can be conceived two different approaches, which are:
1. positively supporting specified coordinative works, such as a conference or a lecture meeting; and
2. not supporting any specified form of the coordinative work but managing only the field of the coordinative work, for example a meeting room.
The first approach is adopted in many commercial television conference systems, while the second approach is adopted in many general-purpose coordinative work systems on the computers, such as ShowMe (trade mark) or Communique ! (trade name).
Thus the systems of the first approach are capable of services specified to the particular coordinative works, while those of the second approach do not support the specified coordinative works but provide service only to the common portion (namely the management of the information of the attendees and of the application program used), and can therefore be utilized for various purposes by the users.
Such groupware systems have been discussed, for example, by Earl Craighill et al., xe2x80x9cSCOOT: An Object-Oriented Toolkit for Multimedia Collaborationxe2x80x9d, Proc. ACM Multimedia 94, pp.41-49(1994), Pavel Curtis et al., xe2x80x9cThe Jupiter Audio/Video Architecture: Secure Multimedia in Network Placesxe2x80x9d, Proc. ACM Multimedia 95, pp.79-90(1995), Ralph D. Hill et al., xe2x80x9cThe Rendezvous Architecture and Language for Constructing Multiuser Applicationsxe2x80x9d, ACM trans. CHI, vol.1, No.2, pp.81-125(1994), and Mark Roseman et al., xe2x80x9cGroupkit: A groupware toolkit for building realtime conferencing applicationsxe2x80x9d, Proc. ACM CSCW 92, pp.43-50(1992).
However the conventional groupware systems have been associated with the first or second approach.
The first approach, being specified to the coordinative word of a certain form, such as a conference, lacks flexibility for wider applications. Also it is deficient in developability of the system, since the expansion of the system, such as addition of new functions, cannot deviate largely from the basic model of the coordinative work. Also certain system in the commercial level cannot be considered to sufficiently realize the coordinative work form such as conference on the computers.
On the other hand, in the second approach, since the system provides the minimum support only, the means for supporting the actual coordinative work has to be provided by the application program functioning on the system. This fact increases the burden of the application developer and renders the development of application difficult. Also the simultaneous use of plural applications may cause confusion to the user or trouble in the cooperation between the applications unless such applications assume a unified coordinative work model.
The above-identified problems are solved and a technical advance is achieved in the art by providing a method and apparatus of realizing the coordinative work environment adaptable to various forms of the coordinative work in a work environment composed of plural computers.
A mechanism is also disclosed that describes the coordinative work form and effects the coordinative work management process adapted to arbitrary coordinative work form, based on the description of the coordinative work form. The description of the coordinative work form is of what components xe2x80x9clogical coordinative workxe2x80x9d such as xe2x80x9cconferencexe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9clecture meetingxe2x80x9d is composed, and how a correlation exists in the respective components. Furthermore, what operations (e.g., add/delete the xe2x80x9ccomponentsxe2x80x9d, add/delete the xe2x80x9ccorrelationxe2x80x9d, etc.) the operations (e.g., start of session, add user to session, etc.) for xe2x80x9clogical coordinative workxe2x80x9d correspond to are described. In addition, how the xe2x80x9ccomponentsxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9ccorrelationxe2x80x9d representing xe2x80x9clogical coordinative workxe2x80x9d correspond respectively to the actual computers, the programs functioning on the computers or the peripheral equipments, and users of the computers is managed.
In accordance with an aspect of the invention, there is provided a system for the coordinative work environment construction system. An exemplary system includes: support means for supporting a plurality of coordinative works by plural computers; description means for describing logical components, a relation between the logical components, and a relation between a component of the logical components and a logical operation of the coordinative works, wherein the logical components are defined by action of the coordinative works; shifting means for shifting one coordinative work to another coordinative work n the basis of the described logical components and the relation between the component of said logical component and the logical operation of the coordinative work, wherein said shifting means is adapted to shift by re-utilization or common use of the described logical components and a relation between the logical components and the logical operation of the coordinative works; and means for effecting an actual work management process by transmitting a moving image and voice, fetched from a camera and a microphone, on the basis of the described logical components and operations of the coordinative work.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, there is provided a method for the coordinative work environment. An exemplary method includes: supporting a plurality of coordinative works by plural computers; describing logical components and operations of the coordinative works, wherein the logical components are defined by action of the coordinative works; shifting one coordinative work to another coordinative work on the basis of the described logical components and the relation between the component of said logical component and the logical operation of the coordinative work, wherein said shifting is adapted to shift by reutilization or common use of the described logical components and a relation between the logical components and a logical operation of the coordinative works; and effecting an actual coordinative work management process by transmitting a moving image and voice, fetched from a camera and a microphone, on the basis of the described logical components, a relation between the respective components, and a relation between the component of said logical component and a logical operation of the coordinative work.
Other and further aspects of the present invention will become apparent during the course of the following detailed description and by reference to the attached drawings.